River Island saves £3m

Fashion retailer River Island says it has generated £3million in cost savings by implementing MetaPack Manager and setting up ‘advanced allocation rules’ that dynamically assign every parcel to the correct carrier based on features like product type, value, size, and delivery postcode.

In the past, and up until three years ago, the retailer’s carrier management system was ‘manually intensive’ – which meant personnel would need to allocate each parcel to a carrier individually. The system was also not aligned with stores – so wasn’t able to handle carrier automation or package assignment.

“MetaPack’s rule-based methodology has provided River Island much greater flexibility in terms of an international proposition and carrier services based on order weight and value, and this has been reflected in the savings that have been made in the last three years,” said the retailer’s e-commerce logistics manager Sunil Bhudia.

“We can clearly see that international rates have been dropping substantially year-on-year, with greater customer satisfaction, lower loss rates and around a 39 per cent overall fall in costs of overseas delivery.

“This equates to around £3 million in savings over this period based on the decreasing average delivery cost, lower customer service interactions and lower lost parcels.”